2023-11-14 21:36:21
The CGT lost for the first time in the history of EDF its position as the leading trade union organization within the French energy company, following the elections of staff representatives which ended Monday evening, we learned. Tuesday from corroborating union sources. The CFE-CGC took first place from it with 33.08% of the votes, against 30.31% for the CGT, according to “quasi-consolidated” results, indicated the executives’ union, orders of magnitude confirmed by the CGT. The result is historic: the CGT was the energy company’s first union organization since its creation in 1946.
Behind, the two other main trade union organizations, the CFDT and FO, more or less maintain their position, with respectively 16.63% and 15.33% of the votes.
“A historic victory”
“This is a historic victory for us, and which will mark the history of EDF SA, since it is the first time in the history of EDF that the CGT has become the second union organization,” rejoiced Amélie Henri , national secretary of CFE-Energie at EDF. Contacted by AFP, Gwenaël Plagne, CGT secretary of the Central Social and Economic Committee (CSEC), confirmed the loss by his union of the status of the company’s leading organization, without wishing to make any direct comments.
For Amélie Henri, this “very nice surprise” crowns “the mobilization of the last four years on all subjects”, in particular the contestation of the pension reform, as well as “all the negotiations that we also carried out on this mandate”. EDF employees were called upon to elect their representatives in EDF’s 48 Social and Economic Committees (CSE), in the group’s main departments as well as on the various sites, such as nuclear or thermal power plants. The election of the CSEC, the central committee, has not yet taken place.
“Major sociological transformations within the profession”
Energy employees were also called upon more widely to elect their representatives in the electricity and gas industries branch, where the CGT was also the first organization, a vote whose official result was not known Tuesday evening. The CGT, however, claimed that it retained its rank at this level, according to “internal” estimates. The CGT of electricians and gas workers was at the forefront of contesting the pension reform at the start of 2023. The participation rate in this election rose to 74.5% of EDF employees, a slight increase compared to the last one. ballot according to the CFE.
Despite its historic nature, this result is not really a surprise, because “it corresponds to an underlying trend”, underlines to AFP Stéphane Sirot, historian specializing in unions, professor at the University of Cergy-Pontoise. The CGT, which in 2007 was still around 51% of the votes in the electricity and gas industries branch, had fallen in 2019 to 38.3%, he recalls. Among the reasons are firstly “major sociological transformations within the profession (…) with increasingly qualified jobs”, therefore more executives which favored the categorical vote for the CFE-CGC , explains the historian.
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